About

The City University of New York's CUNY Graduate School of Journalism offers a top-notch, affordable education teaching traditional journalism values while preparing students to thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape.Learn More →

Our Campus

Administration

Academics

The course of study for the M.A. in Journalism degree is challenging and requires full-time attendance. Students complete 45 units of course work in three semesters, participate in a comprehensive summer internship, and produce a substantial final or capstone project.Learn More →

Concentrations

Highlights

Admissions

Our goal is to attract a diverse group of the highest caliber aspiring journalists to our Master of Arts in Journalism program, then to guide and support them every step of the way, from application through graduation and beyond.Learn More →

Admitted Students

Career Services

The Career Services Office will work with you from the beginning of your time here to the day of graduation -- and beyond. (We’re available to help alums, too.) Among other things, we review resumes, weigh in on cover letters, brainstorm with you about internship and employment choices...Learn More →

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Established Funds

About CUNY J-School

The Master of Arts degree in journalism at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism is an intensive, three-semester program designed to prepare gifted graduate students for a wide variety of careers in the field of journalism.Learn More →

Our Campus

Administration

Program Overview

The course of study for the M.A. degree in Journalism is challenging and requires full-time attendance. Students complete 45 units of course work in three semesters, participate in a comprehensive summer internship, and produce a substantial final or capstone project.Learn More →

Concentrations

Highlights

WANTED: Applicants from a Variety of Backgrounds

Our goal is to attract a diverse group of the highest caliber aspiring journalists to our Masters of Arts in Journalism program, then to guide and support them every step of the way, from application through graduation and beyond.Learn More →

Resources

Donating to CUNY J-School

In order to build a truly great program, the School must continue to secure supplementary support from the private sector. Gifts of any size are welcome and can make a big difference in the lives and academic experience of CUNY J-School students. Learn More →

Stay Connected

CUNY J-Camp

We offer professional development courses for young and mid-career journalists in social media, digital photography, video storytelling, web advertising, and many other skills through our continuing educational program.Learn More →

Urban Reporting

Director Errol Louis discusses the
Urban Reporting Program

What better place to learn about urban reporting than New York City? The city’s richly diverse population, its sophisticated (some would say Byzantine) political system and its powerhouse economy offer endless potential for stories.

We are fortunate to be able to draw on CUNY’s unparalleled network of professors to assist in that pursuit; they inform our curriculum, provide guest speaking and adjunct opportunities, and generate eye-opening field trips.

We also benefit from our professional ties to the city’s top reporters. For example, urban students can take an investigative reporting course with renowned reporter Tom Robbins.

The stories our urban students generate feed right into the School’s many distribution outlets: the NYCity News Service, which promotes student work in print, multimedia, and broadcast formats; 219 West, the monthly TV show which airs on CUNY-TV; and The Nabe, our hyperlocal website that covers Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn.

Our Curriculum

Urban students on field trip to City Hall catch a few minutes with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. (Photograph by Thomas Chan)

Students who choose to specialize in urban reporting take four courses. The first, Covering City Government and Politics, is taken in their second semester.

The second is a required summer internship that follows the second semester. Among the media outlets where the School’s urban concentration students have spent their summers are: NY Daily News, WNYC, NY1, NY Post, Crains New York Business, City Limits, and The New York Times. (Some choose, however, to do their internships in other cities or countries.)

In the third semester, students take Covering New York City’s Economy and Business, and then choose one of three urban electives: Urban Investigative Reporting, Covering NYC Social Issues, and Urban Environmental Reporting. While NYC is the focus of all the courses, the reporting and analytical skills students develop are of universal relevance and can be applied to other urban areas as well.